Unlike many ethnic groups who predominantly originate from a single country, Arab people have their origins in many countries. The twenty-one countries comprising the Arab world include: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, West Bank/Gaza, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen (Ohan and Hayani, 1994). The political instability in many of these countries has resulted in the migration of Arab peoples to other parts of the world, including Canada. In recent years, the number of immigrants from the Middle East has increased (Statistics Canada, 1996); it is likely that these number will continue to increase as countries in the Arab world continue to struggle with political turmoil. Despite the increasing numbers of Arabs immigrating to Canada, there is little information available about this group.

This report is a compilation of the 1991 Canadian Census Data about Arabs in Canada. Limited data from the 1996 data were included when available. Arabs in Canada were examined as a whole and as subgroups: Canadian born, immigrants (recent versus non-recent), Christian and Muslim. Funding for this work was provided by CERIS.

The 1991 Canadian Census Public Use Microdata File (PUMF) data were used for this study. The PUMF is based on the twenty percent sample of the population who answered Form 2B on Census Day 1991. Form 2B, also known as the long form, contained the nine basic demographic census questions in addition to 44 questions on socio-economic status and dwelling related topics. The 20 percent sample data from Form 2B are weighted to reflect the characteristics of the entire population. The PUMF data file used in this study is a 3% sample of the 20% sample weighted to reflect the characteristics of the entire population (Statistics Canada, 1992).

In this study, an Arab Canadian was defined as anyone who identified as being of Arab ethnic origin, who had knowledge of Arabic or whose mother tongue was Arabic. In addition, an Arab was also defined as someone who self-identified as being a visible minority. Four percent of people who were identified as being Arab according to the above definition did not identify as being a visible minority and were therefore excluded from the analysis. Figure 1 presents the percentage of Arabs with each of the characteristics considered in defining the Arab population. Approximately 50% of those considered to be Arab had all three characteristics for both Arabs in Canada as well as Arabs in Ontario.

Figure 1. Identification of Arabs in Canada, 1991

Arabs who identified as having single or multiple ethnic origins were included regardless of their other ethnic origins. Because an Arab person with multiple ethnic origins may have more than one Arab ethnic origin, the resulting statistics reported here may be slightly overestimated due to double-counting since it is not possible to determine whether or not a person has multiple Arab origins using the PUMF. Approximately 20% of all Arabs who reported Arab ethnic origins reported multiple ethnic origins; 25% of Christian Arabs reported multiple ethnic origins compared with 10% of Muslim Arabs.

Subgroups were defined for Canadian-born Arabs, recent Arab immigrants, non-recent Arab immigrants, Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs. Canadian-born Arabs included those who were identified as being Arab, as described above, and who were born in Canada. Recent immigrants were defined as Arabs who had immigrated between 1981 and 1991; the remaining Arab immigrants were considered non-recent immigrants. Christian and Muslim Arabs were identified according to how they responded to the census question on religion.

The 1991 Canadian Census was the first Census in which non-permanent residents were enumerated. For the purposes of this study, non-permanent residents were excluded.

Arabs who immigrated in 1990 or in 1991 were excluded from the income analyses reported in this study to restrict the analysis to those who had the possibility of working for a full year and, thus, those who could report a full year’s income. The income analyses were also limited to those aged 16 to 64. The low-income population was defined according to the low-income cut-offs defined by Statistic Canada A glossary of terms is provided in Appendix A.

The analyses reported in the main body of this report are for the Arab population in Canada. Analyses for Arabs living in Ontario and Quebec are provided in Appendix B.

Comparison figures for the entire immigrant population and the Canadian-born population of Canada were obtained from a publication produced by Citizen and Immigration Canada, which was based on data from the 1991 Census (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 1998).

At the time of the 1991 Census, approximately 194,000 Arabs lived in Canada. The Arab population of Canada live mostly in Quebec and Ontario: 42% live in Ontario, 42% live in Quebec and the remaining 8% live in the four western provinces (Table 1). In all provinces, there are fewer Arab women than Arab men; however, in Ontario there are almost equal numbers of female and male Arabs living in the province.

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

The Arab population of Canada are highly urban with 91% living in Census Metropolitan Areas compared to 84% of all immigrants and 56% of the Canadian born population. Of the Arab population in Canada, 59% live in Toronto and Montreal alone (Table 2).

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

As shown in Figure 2, Arabs in Canada tend to be younger than the general population of Canada: 42 % of Arabs are 0 to 24 years of age compared with 34% of the general population. There are also fewer Arabs aged 65 and over (5%) compared with the general population of Canada (12%).

Of the top ten source countries of immigrants to Canada in 1996, Iran was the only Arab country and accounted for 2.6% of immigrants. In Ontario, none of the Arab counties were among the top ten sources of immigration to the province in 1996. In Quebec, immigrants from Lebanon and Morocco account for 7 percent and 3 percent, respectively, of all new immigrants to Quebec; new immigrants being those who immigrated between 1991 and 1996. Algeria is also among the top ten source countries of immigration to Quebec (Statistics Canada, 1996).

Figure 2. Population Distribution of Arabs in Canada, 1991.

Figure 3. Population distribution of Canadian born and immigrant Arabs in Canada, 1991.

Of the top twenty source countries for business class immigrants to Canada in 1996, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were the only Arab countries and accounted for approximately 8% of business class immigrants. Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Algeria were among the top ten sources of refugees to Canada in 1996 and accounted for 16% of all refugees to Canada in that year (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 1998).

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

Sixty-seven percent of Arabs in Canada are immigrants. As shown in Table 3, 90% of Arabs immigrants immigrated before the age of 45. Female Arabs are only 75% as likely as male Arabs to immigrate before the age of 45, but are twice as likely to immigrate at age 65 or older.

Of Arab immigrants in Canada, 69% are Canadian citizens. Of those who are not Canadian citizens, 93% are recent immigrants. Over 95% of all Arab immigrants in Canada know at least one of the official languages.

The majority of Arab households in Canada are single family households (84%). Nine percent of Arab households are non-family households and 5% are multiple family households. Of those who live in non-family households, most are males under 45 years of age or recent immigrants. Approximately 6% of Arabs in Canada are lone parents. Seventeen percent of Arab women aged 15 and older have had more than three children, while 35% have had no children.

The Arab population in Canada are highly educated with only 13% having less than a grade nine education. Of those with less than a grade nine education, most are immigrants and there is a fairly equal distribution between recent and non-recent immigrants. Twenty percent of Arab females and 27% of Arab males have university degrees. For females, the major fields of study are Commerce/Management/Business Administration and Education/Recreation/Counselling and for males, Commerce/Management/Business and Engineering/Applied Science.

Among Arabs, the average individual income is $20,951. The average individual income for females is half that for males: $13,745 and $26,754 respectively. However, for those who worked full-time and for a full-year there was less discrepancy between the sexes with females earning $22,621 and males earning $33,980. The participation rate for females is lower than for males with 64% of women in the labour force compared with 83% of males. In addition, women were only half as likely as men to work full-time full-year.

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

* the percentages for Canadian Born Arabs are low due to the large number of children in this group

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

The majority of Arabs in Canada are immigrants: 67% are immigrants and 33% are Canadian-born. Arabs born in Canada are younger than immigrant Arabs with three quarters of Canadian-born Arabs under 25 years of age compared with one quarter of Arab immigrants as shown in Figure 3. Because they are much younger than immigrant Arabs, Canadian-born Arabs are less likely to live in multiple family households (2% versus 6%), are less likely to be married (59% versus 20%) and are more likely to be sons/daughters living with parents (73% versus 25%).

The majority (65%) of Canadian-born Arabs speak English at home, while less than one quarter of immigrant Arabs speak English at home. Only one third of Canadian-born Arabs know Arabic, whereas 91% of Arab immigrants know Arabic.

Unemployment is slightly higher among immigrant Arabs than among Canadian-born Arabs, 12% versus 7% respectively. In addition, the percentage of low income immigrant Arabs is almost double that of Canadian-born Arabs, 40% and 22% respectively. However, the mean income of Arab immigrants was slightly higher than that of Canadian-born Arabs, $21,154 and $20,278 respectively. The median income for Arab immigrants was also higher than that of Canadian-born Arabs, $15,000 and $12,338 respectively. Immigrant Arabs received approximately 17% of their income from government transfers and earned 7% from self-employment; whereas Canadian-born Arabs received 8% of their income from government transfers and earned 4% from self-employment.

Almost 60% of Arab immigrants are recent immigrants; that is, people who immigrated within the last ten years of the 1991 Canadian Census. Over time, the age of Arab immigrants has increased slightly. Among recent immigrants, 46% immigrated between the ages of 0 to 24 versus 52% of non-recent immigrants and 11% immigrated between the ages of 45 and 64 versus 8% of non-recent immigrants. There has also been a shift from predominantly Christian immigrants to a more equal split between Christian and Muslim Arab immigrants in Ontario and Quebec. Among non-recent immigrants 67% are Christian compared to 55% of recent immigrants; whereas 25% of non-recent immigrants are Muslim and 41% of recent immigrants are Muslim.

Those who are recent immigrants are more highly educated than non-recent immigrants: 13% of recent immigrants have less than a grade 9 education compared with 17% of non-recent immigrants. However, a lower percentage of recent immigrants are employed (49%) compared with non-recent immigrants (65%), but a higher percentage of recent immigrants are also not in the labour force (36%) compared with non-recent immigrants (28%).

Fewer recent immigrants are married (48%) than non-recent immigrants (68%) and more recent immigrants (34%) are sons/daughters living with parents than non-recent immigrants (11%). More recent immigrants live in multiple family households than non-recent immigrants (9% versus 3%). Recent immigrants are almost equally as likely to live in large households as non-recent immigrants: 23% of recent immigrants live in households of 6 or more people versus 21% of non-recent immigrants. Recent immigrants are also equally as likely to choose to live in urban areas (97%) as non-recent immigrants (94%).

More than half (54%) of recent Arab immigrants are considered low-income compared with 21% of non-recent Arab immigrants. The mean income of $14,741 for recent immigrants is much lower the mean income of $26,611 for non-recent immigrants. With 19% of their income coming from government transfers, recent immigrants are more heavily dependent on the government for income than are non-recent immigrants who receive 15% of their income from government sources. Non-recent immigrants earn much more of their income from self-employment (9%) than do recent immigrants who earn only 4% of their income from self-employment.

Sixty-two percent of Arabs are Christian and 32% are Muslim. Fewer Muslim Arabs are female than male (40% vs. 60%), but there are approximately equal numbers of male and female Christian Arabs. Muslim Arabs are slightly younger than Christian Arabs with 86% of Muslim Arabs under the age of 45 compared with 74% of Christian Arabs.

Muslim Arabs are almost twice as likely as Christian Arabs to have low incomes: 45% of Muslim Arabs are low income compared with 21% of Christian Arabs. This difference persists even when recency of immigration is taken into account. With 21% of their income received from the government, Muslim Arabs receive much more financial assistance from the government than do Christian Arabs who receive 12% of their income from the government. The mean income for Muslim Arabs is $17,374, compared with $22,131 for Christian Arabs.

Almost two thirds of young Arabs were Canadian-born (60%). Among young Arabs, 60% knew Arabic, 64% were of single Arab ethnic origins and 31% reported multiple ethnic origins of which Arab was at least one

The majority of young Arabs live in single family households (91%). Only 4 percent of young Arabs are married. Fifty-three percent of young Arabs live in households with 4 to 5 people and only 7% live in households with fewer than 3 people. Thirty-eight percent of young Arabs live below the low income cut-off.

Among Arabs in the 0 to 24 age group, there were slightly more males than females, 55% and 45% respectively. The distribution of Christians and Muslims among young Arabs is similar to the overall distribution with 58% being Christian and 35% being Muslim.

Among Arab-Canadians who are 65 years of age or older, there are more females than males, 55% and 45% respectively. Whereas 79% elderly Arabs are Christian, only 10% are Muslim. Sixty-three percent of elderly Arabs are married, 16% live with relatives, and 21% live alone. Thirty-one percent of elderly Arabs have been widowed, of which 89% are women. Elderly Arabs are equally likely to live in urban areas as Arabs in general with 94% living in a Census Metropolitan Area.

Forty-one percent of Arabs in this age group have less a grade nine education and 28% live below the low-income cut-off. Although the majority of Arabs in this age group are immigrants, 20% are Canadian-born. Seventy-six percent of those who immigrated did so when they were older than 45.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada. A Profile of Immigrants in Canada. Retrieved November 11, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http:\\cicnet.ci.gc.ca/english/ref/profule/9608imme.html

Ohan, FE and Hayani I. The Arabs in Ontario: A Misunderstood Community.

Statistics Canada. 1991 Census Dictionary. Minister of Industry, Science and Technology, 1992.

Statistics Canada. 1996 Census: Immigration and Citizenship. Nov. 1997. Retrieved July 29, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/971104/d971104.htm

APPENDIX A - GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Arab Ethnic Origin: Those whose ancestor’s were Egyptian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Mahgrebi, Palestinian, Syrian or of Arab origins not included in any of the other Census ethnic groups. This groups includes those who reported at least one Arab ethnic origin and includes those who reported single or multiple Arab ethnic origins.

Fertility: the number of children ever born alive to females aged 15 and older.

Home Language: the language spoken most often at home by the individual at the time of the census.

Household: A person or group of persons who occupy the same dwelling and do not have a usual place of residence elsewhere in Canada.

Family Household: A household that contains at least one census family, i.e. a married or common-law couple with or without never-married daughters or sons or a lone parent living with one or more never-married daughters or sons.

Single Family Household: a single census family with or without additional non-family persons that occupy a private dwelling.

Multiple Family Household: two or more census families with or without additional non-family persons that occupy a private dwelling.

Non-Family Household: either one person living alone in a private dwelling or a group of two or more people who share a private dwelling, but who do not constitute a census family.

Household Maintainers: the number of persons in the household who pay the rent, mortgage, taxes, electricity etc. for the dwelling.

Knowledge of Arabic Language: whether or not the individual can conduct a conversation in Arabic.

Major Field of Study: the predominant discipline or area of learning or training of a person’s highest postsecondary degree, certificate or diploma.

Mother Tongue: the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census.

Labour Force Activity: the labour market activity of the population 15 years of age or older who, in the week prior to enumeration (June 4, 1991) were employed, unemployed, or not in the labour force.

Employed: those who, during the week prior to enumeration, did any work at all, excluding housework or other maintenance or repairs around the house or voluntary work or those who were absent from their job or business due temporary illness or disability, vacation, labour dispute or other reasons.

Unemployed: those who, during the week prior to enumeration, were without work in the past four weeks and were available for work, or those who were on temporary lay-off and expected to return to their job and were available for work, or those who had definite arrangements to start a new job in four weeks or less and were available for work.

Not in the Labour Force: those persons who, in the week prior to enumeration, were unwilling or unable to offer or supply their labour services under conditions existing in the labour market. Included are persons who looked for work during the last four weeks but who were not available to work in the reference week, as well as persons who did not work, did not have a new job to start in four weeks or less, were not on temporary lay-off or did not look for work in the four weeks prior to enumeration.

Low Income Cut-Offs: low income levels determined by Statistics Canada which are based on national family expenditure data and updated yearly based on changes in the consumer price index.

Low Income Cut-Offs for Economic Families and Unattached Individuals, 1990

Participation Rate: participation of population in the labour force is calculated as:

participation rate = (total labour force/population 15 years and over) * 100

Recent Immigrant: An immigrant who immigrated to Canada within the last ten years before the 1991 census.

Total Household Income: the sum of the total incomes of all members of a household who are 15 years of age or older.

Total Individual Income: the total money income received by individuals aged 15 and older during the 1990 calendar year. Persons who immigrated in 1991 are excluded from any analyses for total individual income.

Unemployment Rate: the unemployed labour force expressed as a percentage of the total labour force. Includes only those aged 15 and over.

unemployment rate = (unemployed labour force / total labour force)*100

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

* the percentages for Canadian Born Arabs are low due to the large number of children in this group

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

source: 1991 Census Public Use Microdata File

* the percentages for Canadian Born Arabs are low due to the large number of children in this group

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